what's up with "X"/mark clip ??/also the joys of Control/B!

Hi Y'all-

Small matter but it's bugging me! When I park mid-clip and hit X, it is not selecting the appropriate clip. Wether selected or not... Even if I move the video track selector on the left there up to my chosen track.

Do you have to be on V1 for this to work?? What's the secret?

Also I just want to share the joy of control B, can't believe I didn't know about it earlier, it makes a selected clip invisible, and even keeps it from exporting... So if you are cutting with lots of layers and don't want to deselect a whole track/lose render files, it's a fabulous quick trick...


Thanks,

Marla

Check that your autoselect buttons are correctly checked.

> So if you are cutting with lots of layers and don't want to deselect a whole track/lose render
> files

Actually, you do lose render files with Clip Enable/Disable. But it's still a hell of a lot more convenient than turning off a whole track. Unfortunately, its ease of use also invites lots more dilly-dallying from clients who can't decide between a pan and a pan.


www.derekmok.com

Hi Tom,

Thanks for getting back so fast - but what do you mean, "autoselect buttons?" Do you mean Tools/Button List/Mark Menu?

If that's what you mean, it says mark clip = x in the mark menu tab...

Let me know if you are referring to some other preference area,

Thanks,

Marla

> but what do you mean, "autoselect buttons?"

The little black dots to the right of the track Source/Target buttons. Those determine many timeline functions like Match Frame and Paste. The shortcuts to turn them on/off are APPLE-1, 2, 3 etc. for video tracks and OPTION-1, 2, 3 etc. for audio tracks. (Number pad only, not the number keys across the top)


www.derekmok.com

Oy, Derek, the client thing -

I feel so lucky, at my new job I have only one person to please, and he's got great eyes.

Marla

Oh, thanks dude!

M

Well, that sounded great, but when I autoselect the desired track it STILL does not mark clip! It makes marks that seem unrelated to my in and/or my out. When in the autoselected state does the little tv go clear? Or is the default (black-filled) in the selected position and you have to DE select the other tracks?

To mark a clip, do you need to autoselect the track, select the particcular clip, park the cursor in mid-clip, and then hit X?

Anything else I am forgetting? Does Source/target track matter?

feeling silly,

Marl

AutoSelect works as a hierarchy. A bit of a dumb one. If you have V1 on, for example, V1 trumps all other AutoSelect buttons unless you turn it off. So, if you're trying to select a clip in V4 using AutoSelect, even if the button on V4 is on, if you have a clip in V1 and that track's button is on, it will still select the clip in V1. So you'll need to hit APPLE-123 to turn off V1-V3 before you can use just V4. Or, APPLE-0 to toggle on/off all tracks, then APPLE-4 to turn back on the one you want.

That's why lots of people hate AutoSelect and want to reduce the number of tasks that rely on it. The Source/Target button is much easier to use; in fact, the only time I can think of AutoSelect being beneficial is if you're copying a group of clips and need to paste them to specific, disparate tracks.


www.derekmok.com

That does seem rediculous, design wise! if they had just dealt with the hierarchy the opposite way, top most track taking precedence as in general viewing, it'd make more sense and cause less separate keystrokes... Who is messing with V1 when there is an active clip above it on V3?!

Thanks Derek, for your fine level of detail. What other functions - besides mark clip - depend on it? Apart from the pasting example you gave above (and do you mean when you are pasting them to another timeline and want them to land into different tracks than in the current timeline?),

Marla

> What other functions - besides mark clip - depend on it?

Match Frame does. Up until FCP5, you can only Match Frame a clip if the AutoSelect buttons in the tracks above are off or if you have no clips there. Luckily, FCP5 added a function whereby you can Match Frame any clip by selecting it.

Copy/Cut/Paste do. By default, a clip you copy/cut will paste to the same track as its original location. But if you want it somewhere else, you have to make sure the desired target track is the topmost AutoSelect-enabled track.

If you applied a filter without anything active in the Viewer or selected in the timeline, it will also get applied to only the clip in the topmost AutoSelect-enabled track. Same for Modify - Scale to Sequence, and I imagine a host of other functions. But I would never use AutoSelect this way -- I always click to select whatever I want to change before executing the operation.


www.derekmok.com

I always select too, so I had no idea! But the copy/paste to other tracks is great to know, I hate that and have invented workarounds that I now see are unecessary.

Thanks so much, totally useful!

FCP still doesn't have "Find Bin" though, does it?

And how about color coding ones markers, is that possible yet?

Marla

If you option-click on the auto select button you want, it will automatically de-select all the other auto select buttons. Toggles on and off.